Alternate american competitions

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fmasroor

779 posts

fmasroor

#1 h May 30, 2014, 3:46 AM • 3 Y

Y by NumberX, Adventure10, Mango247

I have realized that I hate how the US way of getting into IMO because I really suck at computation problems. Other countries begin with proof based ones and stick with that, but US does computation and then proof. I suppose it's good for easy grading since there are a bunch of people taking the first level and lesser as you go up. However I absolutely suck at these.

Are there any alternate US competitions that are only divided by grade level? Eg. Tournament of Towns (but that's Russian or something) is just one thing, all proof based, divided by grade level. Anything like that in the US?

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niraekjs

1861 posts

niraekjs

#2 h May 30, 2014, 3:47 AM • 1 Y

Y by Adventure10

BAy area math olympiad

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fmasroor

779 posts

fmasroor

#3 h May 30, 2014, 1:21 PM • 2 Y

Y by Adventure10 and 1 other user

But I live in the 305

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SMOJ

2663 posts

SMOJ

#4 h May 30, 2014, 1:33 PM • 1 Y

Y by Adventure10

fmasroor wrote:

I have realized that I hate how the US way of getting into IMO because I really suck at computation problems. Other countries begin with proof based ones and stick with that, but US does computation and then proof. I suppose it's good for easy grading since there are a bunch of people taking the first level and lesser as you go up. However I absolutely suck at these.

Are there any alternate US competitions that are only divided by grade level? Eg. Tournament of Towns (but that's Russian or something) is just one thing, all proof based, divided by grade level. Anything like that in the US?

I would like to say that the AMCs are necessary to build a barrage of tricks that will definitely prove useful on Olympiads. But then the AIME is unnecessary.

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Royalreter1

1913 posts

Royalreter1

#5 h May 31, 2014, 3:54 AM • 2 Y

Y by DeathLlama9, Adventure10

You can take the USAMTS.

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happiface

1300 posts

happiface

#6 h May 31, 2014, 8:46 PM • 2 Y

Y by mathcruncher, Adventure10

Uh, ARML/HMMT etc power? Unfortunately there are not many proof only major competitions. If you want to be successful on math contests, you should be able to do computational stuff as well (and there's really not much explanation for only being good at proof math, in my opinion).

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happiface

1300 posts

happiface

#7 h May 31, 2014, 8:48 PM • 1 Y

Y by Adventure10

Also, other countries may start with proof since there is generally a smaller number of interested students. In the US, there needs to be screening stages since there is simply not enough staff to grade thousands of proofs.

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wcao9311

388 posts

wcao9311

#8 h May 31, 2014, 11:38 PM • 2 Y

Y by Adventure10, Mango247

I personally think that there should be more than just AMC and AIME, the selection should be a composite of AMC,AIME, HMMT, ARML, and other contest to provide a more accurate picture, however this may cost money that AMC might not have.

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AndrewKwon97

130 posts

AndrewKwon97

#9 h Jun 1, 2014, 12:43 AM • 4 Y

Y by Adventure10, Mango247, and 2 other users

A composite of those competitions wouldn't be viable; PUMaC, HMMT, and ARML are not affiliated with the MAA, and problem quality is.. questionable at times (although the same can probably be said for AMC/AIME in certain years). Regionally coordinated olympiads (like USAMTS operated semi-locally) would probably resemble the Chinese regional Olympiad system the most, but funding is limited.

Furthermore, partitioning qualifiers between the AMC/AIME route and a proposed Olympiad qualification process would be difficult/nearly impossible to do, making the process unnecessarily complicated for the MAA. The process they have now works for the purposes of increasing interest in math, while also being effective in selecting the USA IMO team. There are anomalies from time to time (perhaps quite frequently, myself and many of my friends included), but as a general rule the AMC and AIME serve their purpose, while the selection process for the USAMO has usually been effective at selecting strong students.

To more directly answer fmasroor's question, there aren't that many. Florida will have a statewide Olympiad of multiple rounds, coordinated through the Florida Student Association of Mathematics, starting this fall (formerly known as the Florida Online Math Olympiad in 2012). Besides the USAMTS, few other options exist. However, you have done very well at PUMaC and HMMT, so your computational ability isn't as bad as you make it out to be.

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BOGTRO

5818 posts

BOGTRO

#10 h Jun 2, 2014, 2:49 AM • 23 Y

Y by AndrewKwon97, mentalgenius, mathtastic, nsun48, DrMath, champion999, Zorger74, Math4Life7, Adventure10, Mango247, Lhaj3, and 12 other users

I'll give you some multiple choice question practice:

Which of the below is most likely to improve your computational math ability?

A) Insisting you are bad at computational math
B) Avoiding computational math
C) Complaining about some competitions emphasizing computational math
D) Practicing computational math

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wcao9311

388 posts

wcao9311

#11 h Jun 2, 2014, 3:33 AM • 1 Y

Y by Adventure10

E) learning math very well.

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countyguy

722 posts

countyguy

#12 h Jun 6, 2014, 4:02 PM • 2 Y

Y by Adventure10, Mango247

AndrewKwon97 wrote:

Florida will have a statewide Olympiad of multiple rounds, coordinated through the Florida Student Association of Mathematics, starting this fall (formerly known as the Florida Online Math Olympiad in 2012). Besides the USAMTS, few other options exist. However, you have done very well at PUMaC and HMMT, so your computational ability isn't as bad as you make it out to be.

How would I join that? I am very interested.

Also, fmasroor, you were amazing in figuring out how the answer to that 80999 question on the ARML tryout test was 8. I could never have done that in a million years. That problem is computational math, and what you did shows connectedness between computational and proof math. Do some AIME rather than hang around on the Pre-Olympiad forum.

You could try to

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yugrey

2326 posts

yugrey

#13 h Jun 6, 2014, 9:21 PM • 6 Y

Y by pi37, sicilianfan, droid347, DrMath, Adventure10, and 1 other user

BOGTRO wrote:

I'll give you some multiple choice question practice:

Which of the below is most likely to improve your computational math ability?

A) Insisting you are bad at computational math
B) Avoiding computational math
C) Complaining about some competitions emphasizing computational math
D) Practicing computational math

How about just doing olympiad math and neglecting computational math?

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sicilianfan

944 posts

sicilianfan

#14 h Jun 6, 2014, 9:26 PM • 2 Y

Y by Adventure10 and 1 other user

yugrey wrote:

How about just doing olympiad math and neglecting computational math?

I'm living proof that this is not the right path if you want to be completely successful in competitions.

However, that doesn't mean that this isn't the most fun path

.

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mapletree14

104 posts

mapletree14

#15 h Jun 8, 2014, 12:53 AM • 1 Y

Y by Adventure10

yugrey wrote:

BOGTRO wrote:

I'll give you some multiple choice question practice:

Which of the below is most likely to improve your computational math ability?

A) Insisting you are bad at computational math
B) Avoiding computational math
C) Complaining about some competitions emphasizing computational math
D) Practicing computational math

How about just doing olympiad math and neglecting computational math?

I personally think that the skills necessary are very much interrelated - this does work.

Hmm, there is the Putnam as well, for 12th graders

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countyguy

722 posts

countyguy

#16 h Jun 8, 2014, 1:13 AM • 3 Y

Y by Adventure10, Mango247, and 1 other user

The other thing that must be remembered is that when you are an adult in the math world, it's not like your AIME score determines your status. In one of the AIME Math Jams I went to/read the transcript of, DPatrick said he does not remember his AIME score because it is so irrelevant in the adult math world. And that is from somebody in one of the most AIME-related math jobs in the country!

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